Arlington’s Willow Thompson gets over the bar on her way to winning the pole vault at Friday’s Doug Mowrey Invitational at Van Buren. Thompson won the event with a jump of 10-6. (Photo by Matthias Leguire.)

By TED RADICK
staff writer
VAN BUREN — The best athletes are often their own worst critics.
Arlington senior pole vaulter Willow Thompson finds herself in a dilemma that way. She has her goals in mind and wants to reach them, and at the same time she has to remind herself once in a while that she’s only human.
“That’s just how I am as an athlete,” she said. “I’m too hard on myself.”
Last year’s state meet was a prime example. Thompson won the Division III championship with a vault of 11 feet, 9 inches. Afterward, she talked about how happy and excited she was to win a state title.
Not once did she crack a smile.
“I got more heat for that than anything,” she said with a laugh after winning the vault championship at Friday’s Van Buren Doug Mowrey Invitational. “Heat for not smiling, heat for not being excited. That’s just how I am as an athlete. I wanted to get that 12-foot jump there and I didn’t get it.
“I was pretty mad about not getting 12 feet. I didn’t really care about the state championship title. Not getting 12 was upsetting.”
Thompson went 10-6 at the Mowrey meet, tying the meet record set in 2011 by North Baltimore’s Amanda Hotaling. Once again, Thompson wasn’t quite sure what to make of it.
“I’m still hard on myself,” she said. “I’m not too mad about not clearing 11-6 or anything huge right now. It is only our third meet and we didn’t vault at Carey, and we’ve been outside maybe three or four times.”
That 12-foot vault, though, remains as elusive as ever. It’s a mental as well as physical barrier she wants to get over.
“I need to. I really need to get that out of the way,” she said. “All the practices we’ve had, when we’ve gotten outside, have been super-good.”
That, and the fact she’s ahead of where she was last year, has Thompson hopeful.
“It’s important to stay consistent, and I jumped 10-6 at Hardin Northern,” she said of her first vaulting competition earlier in the week. “I think I jumped 8-6 here last year, that’s a sore subject still. Last year at Hardin Northern I jumped 8 or 9, so if I think of it that way it’s not so bad. I need to keep the end of the year in mind and just go for that.”
Like every spring athletes, Thompson is waiting through the cool and wet spring to get some consistent training in.
“The L-B Invite (May 1 and 3 this year) is usually when the weather breaks, when we’re done with all the rain and cold, and that’s usually where we gauge where we’re going to be towards the end of the year,” she said. “Are we going to go up from here, or do we need to start working harder on some stuff?
“Last year there, I went 11-4 and we needed to get better from there. Since I’m already jumping 10-6 this year, hopefully I can go huge at the end of the year. That’s what I’m working on right now.”
Carey’s girls and Elmwood’s boys won the team championships at the Mowrey meet.
The Carey girls scored 149½ points to defeat the host Black Knights (128½). Elmwood (107), Arlington (106) and McComb (79) rounded out the top five.
The Elmwood boys scored 179 points to easily top Arlington (113), Carey (95), McComb (86) and Van Buren (80).
The boys meet featured two triple winners in McComb’s Clay Dysert and Elmwood’s Aaron Arnold. Dysert swept the sprints, winning the 100 (11.34), 200 (24.55) and 400 (54.10), while Arnold won the triple jump (41-6½) and long jump (20-6), and teamed with Jace Grossman, Zachary Hocker and Austin Jasso to win the 1,600 relay (3:42.75).
Carey’s Gwen Wentling and Amber Spurlock were triple winners in the girls meet. Spurlock won the 200 (27.96) and Wentling the 400 (1:02.84); the duo teamed with Sara Craig and Lauren Wenner to capture the 800 relay (1:52.35) and with Joanna Worst and Hailey Heinz to win the 1,600 relay (4:26.29).
Double winner in individual events included Arlington’s Arden McMath in the 1,600 (5:40.00) and 3,200 (12:13.62); North Baltimore’s Megan Ernsberger in the 100 intermediate (18.07) and 300 low (54.23) hurdles; and McComb’s Molly Leppelmeier in the shot (38-11/4) and discus (128-0).